


Elevator

by Zoya113



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: Brigadoon, F/M, Gen, Working Boys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-05 21:47:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18837415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoya113/pseuds/Zoya113
Summary: Emma visits Paul at work but ends up getting stuck in the elevator with Ted of all people.





	Elevator

Emma was in and out of CCRP so often Melissa had given her her own access card.  
Every time she visited Paul she would bring the secretary her favourite tea from Beanies in return.  
Paul only worked on on the third floor up but Emma always preferred the elevator- it was easier than carrying her collection of coffees up all three flights, and much easier on her bad leg.  
She pressed the up button on the elevator and the doors slowly began to shut but before they could someone shoved their hand in between the door, stopping it.  
“Ted!” Emma gaped. As short as the elevator ride was there was one person she would never want to spent it with. “Hey,” she huffed.  
“Oh, hey, it’s you.” He eyed up the drinks in her hands. “Any of those for me?”  
“Well did you order one?” She asked.  
“No but you know what I like,” he tried to argue. “Chai ice tea, yeah?”  
“Unless Chai ice tea is a nickname for black coffee then I’ve got nothing for you,” she shrugged, shifting into the corner as far as she could from him.  
“Eh,” Ted brushed a hand through his greasy hair. “How’s your hot coworker?”  
“I’m doing great, thanks,” she rolled her eyes.  
The elevator jumped.  
Ted reached out to grab the wall and Emma leant back, widening her stance.  
“Uh oh,” Ted bit his lip.  
“That doesn’t usually happen, does it?” Emma pressed the open button on the control panel. “Why aren’t the doors opening?”  
“Well shit,” Ted massaged his forehead. “The fucking thing broke.”  
“You’re joking with me.” Emma did not want to spent her break in a box with Ted. She whipped out her phone to text Zoey. 

‘Let Nora know I might be late? I’m stuck.’

‘In traffic?’ 

‘An elevator, actually! Exciting start to the day.’ 

Zoey sent back a string of emojis Emma couldn’t decipher. She exhaled loudly.  
“So what do we do?”  
“I’ll handle it. Don’t get scared,” he teased, examining the control panel. “There’s a call button,” he informed.  
As he tried to get it working she changed conversations to text Paul.

‘Your coffee’s going to be cold, sorry’

‘Oh no, what’s happening?’ 

‘I’m stuck. Not in traffic, I’m in the elevator.’

Paul’s next reply was slower. ‘What?’

‘Your dumb elevator broke. Ted’s trying to get help.’

‘Ted?’ 

‘Yeah. As if this day couldn’t get any worse.’  
Emma tucked her phone back into her pocket, sipping anxiously at Paul’s coffee and recoiling at the bitter taste. “Any luck?”  
“They’re gonna get help,” Ted seemed angry. “It’s gonna take them forever though.”  
Emma grumbled, sinking down to sit on the floor. She rested the coffee on her lap. “We’re gonna have to ration this shit out,” she tried to joke. Ted didn’t react. “Hey, at least you’re getting paid. My clock stopped ticking the moment I left Beanies.”  
Ted chuckled. “Let’s not talk, okay? It’s bad enough to be stuck in an elevator, even worse to be trapped in here with Paul’s ‘perfect, wonderful, cute’ girlfriend,” He mocked Paul’s voice.  
“Wow, okay,” anger stirred inside Emma. If they were going to spend the next while together he could at least make an effort to not be so rude.  
Ted was on his phone for about five minutes before he sunk to the floor and tossed it into his lap. “Out of charge.”  
Emma checked the charge on her phone. “Do you mind if I ring Paul?”  
“I’d prefer it if you didn’t. I don’t want to third wheel.”  
Emma bit her lip and stared blankly at the floor. This was such a waste of time.  
Ted looked like he was trying to entertain himself, he fiddled with his tie and combed his hair and unfolded a paperclip from his pocket. Whenever he grew bored he would let out this annoying, nasally sigh.  
“How long do you think it’ll take?” Emma stared at the door, expecting it to open any moment.  
“No clue,” Ted shrugged. “Why didn’t you just take the stairs?”  
“Fell out of a helicopter, Ted. Got skewered on some piece of rebar. I’m not a very big ‘walking’ fan. What’s your excuse?”  
“Listen, I work here. I’m allowed to do what I want.”  
Emma held her breath. What a great day was laid out in front of her.  
“Wanna play twenty questions?”  
“No,” she swiftly cut him off. “Let’s not get personal.”  
“Well let’s get something, I’m bored as fuck.” He twiddled with his thumbs again. “So, you play any instruments?”  
Emma shook her head. “Don’t really have the time for that.” She paused, leaving an awkward silence. “You?” She has slipped back into her customer service voice.  
“Nope. Used to play guitar, forgotten it now though.”  
“Well maybe you can pick it up again.” Super customer service.  
“Do you speak any other languages?”  
“I said let’s not play twenty questions.”  
“So is that a yes or a no?”  
“I speak Spanish,” she already felt tired. Whenever she told anyone they would always ask her to demonstrate as if she had to prove it to them, but Ted said nothing to follow up.  
“How do you kill time?” Ted asked. “It’s gotta be boring, just standing at the counter all day right? Do you do anything to make it go faster?”  
“I do my job,” she raised one eyebrow. “And when it gets slow I come and bring you guys coffee.”  
Ted looked at the coffee cups again. “Correction, you bring those guys coffee. Come on, I even saw you get Melissa something! Did you leave me out on purpose?”  
Emma didn’t answer but her laugh said enough.  
“What’s the story of your worst customer?” Ted asked, slipping further down the wall until he was lying on his back.  
Emma didn’t have to think for long. “I think I get a new worst customer everyday. I hate it when people try to pay for expensive drinks entirely in loose change. And I hate it when something’s like, two dollars, and they give you a five dollar note and you put it in the register and then they say ‘oh! Actually I have a two dollar coin, can you use this instead? I don’t want to carry around the change’ like I can’t help you. It’s in the till. I think everyone should be required to learn how to use a register. And I hate, oh my god, I can’t stress this enough. The amount of people who buy coffee and ask for a bag! It’s fucking coffee! What do they expect? Have you ever seen a coffee bag?”  
Ted shrugged. “Seems like some obscure shit I’d see in like, a hipster cafe or something.”  
“Yeah. Anyways. I really hate my job. That’s why I come over here to hang out with Paul and Charlotte and Bill and Melissa-“  
“And me?”  
“I don’t come for you and you know it,” she pointed an accusing finger at him. “Anyways, that’s my shitty life.”  
Ted propped his head up on his fist. “And how does that make you feel?” He asked, putting on some sort of mock-therapist impression.  
“Oh piss off,” Emma snorted. “I’m not talking about my life with my boyfriend’s coworker.”  
“Aww, we went through that whole apocalypse together and I’m just your ‘boyfriends coworker?’ I thought we’d at least reached the next stage.”  
As much as she didn’t get along with Ted she appreciated that he could take a bit and still keep up with the joke.  
“We went through Workin Boys together! Surely that means something to you. It was dinner and a show! That’s got to count as a first date.”  
“For starters, no. Just absolutely not. Secondly, unless Dinner was blue shit then you’re wrong again. And also I’d hardly call Workin’ boys a show.”  
Ted’s jaw dropped. “Are you kidding?”  
“How does he have that many friends?  
Greg and Steve and Stu and Mark and Leighton-“  
“And Chad!” Ted added.  
“I know, Hidgens never lets me forget about Chad.”  
Ted nodded happily. “It’s really touching.”  
“I dunno. It felt too ‘self-insert-y’ to me. You know?”  
Ted seemed shocked. “No way.”  
“I’m like ninety percent sure he has a framed picture of Chad on the mantle. And I’ve read the script too.”  
“You’ve read the script!?” Ted scrambled back up into a sitting position, reaching out for Emma’s shoulder.  
“Tell me how it ends! Where did you read it!”  
“Hidgens have it to me to proof read. I love the guy but the writing sucked ass. The ending was so plain I barely remember. I think they just like, went home.”  
Ted shook his head. “No, don’t say that about Working Boys. That’s crossing a line.”  
Emma pushed Ted’s hand off her shoulder. “I’ll hook you up with a script if you leave me alone. The professor’ll be over the moon that you like it. It’ll keep him going for days.”  
“Oh wow, you’re the best!” Ted exclaimed, clasping his hands together joyfully. “Tell me what happens- no! Don’t spoil it.”  
Emma barely remembered the plot. All it seemed like was just a bunch of friends getting together to talk for two hours while they played football. Maybe if she studied literature she could find some huge allegory or metaphor that would give it some meaning but otherwise it was too dry to remember.  
“So, um...” Emma desperately searched for another conversation to pursue. “Do you have a worst customer story?”  
Ted laughed. “Do I? All the time. For starters there’s this one girl who keeps rocking up at the office and she’s like four foot tall and absolutely feral. Hangs around the office all day and won’t go home.”  
“Are you talking about me?” Emma pinched the bridge of her nose.  
“Hah, yeah. I’m talking about you.”  
“In that case I’d like to change my worst customer story.”  
“Shoot,” Ted grinned.  
Emma chuckled at his enthusiasm. “He’s this guy with a shitty moustache who only tags along to flirt with my co worker who isn’t interested.”  
“Below the belt, Em.”  
“Cry me a river, princess,” she hadn’t been looking at the door for a while now.  
Ted put on a fake offended look. “Well if you insist,” and without any hesitance he threw on a melodramatic expression, throwing his hand across his forehead. “Woe is me!” He sobbed, putting on an awful English accent.  
“Impressive,” Emma wasn’t sure if she was lying or not. “Have you ever acted?”  
“Used to dabble in it, you?”  
“I played Bonnie Jean in a production of Brigadoon once. You’ve totally got the accent wrong, also that wasn’t melodramatic enough. Watch this, I’m basically a professional.” Emma cleared her throat and Ted crossed his legs, moving into the corner of the elevator to give her room.  
She rested her arm over her forehead and dipped her head back, splaying out on the elevator floor like she had been struck. “Oh how fate is cruel!” She cried out, pretending to sob.  
Ted roared with laughter, batting her in the shoulder. “Wow, we have a professional on our hands. You can do better than that! It’s more like this!” He stood up and did an over-exaggerated preparation, clearing his throat with a loud cough and straightening his posture.  
“Death is near!” Ted bellowed, throwing himself against the wall and sliding down with a dramatic cry. As he reached the floor he stuck one leg up in the air.  
“Now that’s acting,” he boasted.  
“How’ll I ever top that?” Emma bit back a laugh, her face going red.  
They made eye contact for only a second and neither of them could hold back their laughter.  
Ted doubled over, banging his fist on the floor, unable to get any words out over his laugh.  
Emma just about screamed, tossing her head back with teary eyes and a wide smile. “See you on the red carpet!” She joked, punching Ted playfully in the shoulder.  
“Red carpet? You think yourself too low. They’re going to have to invent a golden carpet just for us.”  
“Hah! As if! It’s gonna be made out of pure diamond! I won’t accept anything less!” Emma wiped her eyes, her body hurt from laughing.  
“Diamonds! Now we’ve got it!”  
They barely heard the chime of the elevator door over their laughing.  
It was the light from the third floor that flooded into the small box that alerted them they were finally free.  
Two repairmen and Paul stood on the other side.  
Emma immediately stopped laughing, she jumped to her feet. “Ugh!” Emma hurried out of the elevator, throwing herself into Paul’s arms dramatically.  
“Woah! You okay?”  
“That was the worst hour of my life!” She whined.  
“Oh my god, are you crying?” Paul wiped Emma’s eyes with his thumb.  
“It was awful, Paul,” she dipped her head. “I was so scared. I thought I was going to die.”  
Ted chuckled behind her and Paul shot him a scolding look.  
Emma wrapped her arms around Paul, pressing into him. “I’m so happy to be out of there.”  
“Yeah, you don’t look too good,” Paul gave a sympathetic laugh. “I suppose that’s the last time you’ll be bringing me coffee for a while.”  
“No,” Emma let go of Paul and straightened up, rubbing her eyes. One hour with Ted wouldn’t make her give up seeing Paul everyday. “But it’s the last time I’ll ever take the elevator. I’m using the stairs from now on.”  
“Alright hun, we’d better get you back to work. Will you be okay?”  
Emma sniffled. “I’ll manage somehow.”  
Paul guided her gently in the direction of the staircase.  
Emma shot a look back over her shoulder at Ted as he watched them go. She smirked.  
Ted gave her a thumbs up. “Pure diamond,” he grinned.

**Author's Note:**

> Fjshfjsdnns my head has like 0 ideas rn I might take a short break while I think of something to write that actually has some quality & depth to it or maybe I’ll be back again tomorrow who knows. Anyways tho if anyone has any prompts or suggestions I’m always open  
> Thank you 💕💕💕


End file.
